Son of the Night Wanderer
by Dan Guerra
Summary: On a vision quest, a young Native American man discovers his spirit helper, from the Twilight Zone.
1. Chapter 1

**Son of The Night Wanderer**

_Imagine if you will, a gentle tribe of hunter-gatherers, Native Americans...before the coming of so-called civilization, before the time when the other people came. They considered themselves human beings. No less, and no more than all the creatures on the earth. They shared the earth with all of them, and they were all watched over by the Sun. And at night, the Moon, the Night Wanderer. And in all of this, was the Everywhere Spirit. _

_One young man sought the meaning of the Everywhere Spirit...instead, he found The Twilight Zone. _

Two Bears was asleep in his tent. He was warm and content, because he was with Swan. He had loved Swan ever since he could remember, and now, in his twentieth summer, she was his...and he was hers. Earlier that evening there had been a feast, celebrating a great hunt. The moon, Goddess of the Hunt, The Night Wanderer, had looked down on his people with favor.

The evening before, the hunters had danced around the fire, dressed in animal skins, some holding antlers above their heads. With precision, they danced as in a rehearsal, in every detail of the hunt that was to come. How the deer would be found, how it would be stalked, and how it would be killed. The women and children watched intensely. But the dance was performed for the moon goddess, so that the hunters' desires would be known to her. If she had been pleased with their dance, it would be a good hunt.

After the ceremony was done, they all sat in silence, knowing that an important and ancient magic had taken place among them. And the moon goddess, the Night Wanderer, slowly made her way across the sky. Two Bears watched, never taking his eye off the moon.

The next day was indeed a good hunt! And a great feast afterward. Everyone ate, danced, and they were happy and content.

But Two Bears was afraid of the moon, especially when she showed her full face. Why was she a wanderer anyway? Why couldn't she be reliable and stationery in the sky, like the Sun and the stars? Was she afraid of the Sun? Maybe that's why she only showed her full face every 28 days, only to hide it again more and more as nights wore on, and wander among the stars and disappear completely. But then she would reappear during the day, as if to challenge the Sun. But she never dared, she wandered through the night sky as she always did.

Two Bears was afraid of her. Especially when she showed her face. He was afraid that her son might appear again.

He rolled over and buried his face in Swan's neck and softly smiled, she was warm. He wished the moment could last forever. Then he heard it...that sound...a distant thunder, it was unmistakable. Two Bears sat up. "Could it be?" Quietly he rose and left his tent. Looking up at the full moon, he walked out to a clearing away from the other tents. His gaze never left the moon, "Night Wanderer?" His heart was racing as he listened to that distant sound, a constant rumble, a thunder that didn't cease.

In his mind, he was transported to five years earlier, when he was sent away on his vision quest. His father had thought it was time for him to be a man. To venture forth in the wilderness and seek his spirit helper, usually in the form of an animal. "Perhaps you'll find your bear friends!" his father laughed.

When he was four years old, he wandered away from the village, his parents were frantic...everyone was looking for him. His father finally found him by a creek, playing with two bear cubs. "Come with me quickly, Two Bears! Before Mama Bear arrives!"

So Two Bears had set out on his vision quest, five years ago. And as he left, "Two Bears?" It was Swan, she had run after him..."Take these!" She gave him a pouch of water and corn cakes. "Swan!..." before he could thank her she was already running back home....

The moon was hiding most of her face in the sky as he went on his vision quest.

Seven days and nights later, he was starving. He had no vision, no idea of any sort of destiny. "I'm a stupid boy, alone in the wilderness. I may die here!" He felt frightened and alone. He was weak from a lack of food, and water. It was dusk, and he knew that the moon, the Night Wanderer, was going to finally show her full face soon. If he could just make it up the nearby hill, nearer to her....

Slowly he made it up to the summit, and he stared, straight into the full moon. "Night Wanderer? Please...show me how to be a man."

He felt faint, "Everywhere Spirit...are you there? Will you help me?" He plopped down on the hill. Then he saw it...a star, moving on its own, away from the moon. He watched as it circled around in the sky. This was not an ordinary star, because it _moved!_...not like the other stars. Not like shooting stars. He watched as it moved. "Night Wanderer, is this your son?"

He watched the moving star as it circled around him and he heard its thunder. In his exhaustion, he was terrified and amazed. The star moved closer, in a downward spiral. The thunder became louder. "Night Wanderer? Is this your son?"

Suddenly a bright light blinded him. Then he saw the thing descending toward him, and he was terrified. He saw its claws, its wings...and he felt the wind of its hot breath. "This is NOT your son, this is a monster!"

Two Bears turned and ran down the hill, he could feel the hot breath of the monster behind him, ready to devour him at any moment. Running downhill, he tripped and fell forward, hitting the ground face-first. Then everything went black.

When he awoke, it was daylight. His head was throbbing with pain. Slowly he sat up, and noticed he was covered by a woolen blanket. It was warm, with a fine weave. Where did it come from? Then he thought of the monster from the night before and looked around him with a sudden sense of urgency, fearing it was still nearby. But he was completely alone on the slope of the hill. His head still hurt, not just from the bruises from his fall, but from an ache behind his ear. He felt it and noticed a small bump, and a trace of drying blood. He must have hit a rock there too.

He noticed something else...he felt curiously energized, and he wasn't hungry or thirsty, as he had been for days. Looking around him, he was astonished to see that his water pouch was once again filled, and there were pieces of cornbread in another small bag. Where did this all come from? Did someone come along in the night and leave him these things?

Then he thought of the monster. Surely not...He even began to wonder if the whole experience was just a dream, a hallucination. He got up and stretched, he felt rested and rejuvenated. Something profound did happen, there was no question. Perhaps his vision quest was complete, and it was time to return home, and contemplate the nature of his spirit helper, for he indeed had come.

When he returned home, he was greeted warmly by everyone, and his father asked him, "Did you find your spirit helper?"

"Yes father I did. I believe he was the son of the Night Wanderer. He came to me in the form of a monster." His father raised his eyebrows, almost scoffing. "Well, whatever your vision was, you seem to have truly seen it."

That was all five long years ago. And ever since, Two Bears looked at every full moon with apprehension. If the Son of the Night Wanderer...that monster...had indeed been his spirit helper, he never wanted to experience it again.

And now he could hear it. He stared up at the moon, shaking with fear. "Two Bears? What is it?" Swan had joined him.

Two Bears never took his gaze off the moon. "Do you hear it?...that thunder?"

Swan stared at him, and then up at the moon. "Yes...yes I do hear it!"

Then he saw it, the star. It was moving away from the moon. Two Bears was terrified. He turned to Swan, "Go back! Run! Our people are in danger!" He turned and ran as fast as he could away from the camp. "Two Bears! Wait! What is it?" Swan was running after him.

"Swan! Go back! I must get as far away from our people as possible! Do you see that star?"

She looked up, "Yes! I see it moving!"

"That is the Son of the Night Wanderer, it is a monster!"


	2. Chapter 2

Two Bears ran as fast as he could, putting distance between him and the tribe. Slowing to a trot, he could hear footsteps behind him, it was Swan. "Swan! Why did you follow me? It's dangerous!"

"I want to see!"

He looked up and spotted the moving star, it was traveling in an arc overhead, beginning a circular pattern in the sky. But it was not descending like it had, five years before. They both stared.

"Is it really a monster?"

"Yes! It's terrible...like a giant insect! It has enormous talons, and its roar and hot breath...I saw its face...Swan, you shouldn't be here!"

"Two Bears, I'm...I'm not afraid. This is your spirit helper, is it not? The son of the Night Wanderer. It didn't harm you before, why would it now?"

He listened to her reasoning, and it was true enough, the monster did not devour or destroy him. Indeed, it left him unharmed, and strangely revitalized the next day. But why did it come in such a terrible incarnation? They continued staring, barely hearing its distant roar. It had gone in a complete circle and was starting a second lap high above them. As they watched, it flew around them a third time, then a fourth. "Why doesn't it come down?" she asked.

"I don't know," Two Bears shook his head. "I don't understand. Maybe the Night Wanderer won't let him." They watched as the spirit helper flew around them for the fifth time. Then it started back towards the full moon, and away as its roar faded, disappearing into the night.

Two Bears and Swan walked back to their village. A few of the tribesmen were awake, standing outside near a small fire. One of the tribe's elders, Ancient Warrior spoke, "We saw..."

"You saw it then! That was my spirit helper! He has returned!"

"Did he speak to you?"

"No...he didn't speak...he stayed in the sky, then he flew away."

Ancient Warrior was puzzled. "Never before has this happened. A spirit helper does not make himself known to others...unless...this is something more."

"Something more?"

"A harbinger. A warning." He looked at the full moon. "The Night Wanderer will tell us, in her time...Come, let us retire now, to our tents, to our dreams."

In the nights afterward, as the moon began to hide her face again as she slipped through the sky, they watched. There were no more appearances of the spirit helper. But their hunt was another good one, and they continued to live in abundance.

Then came the next full moon, and they danced as before. When the dance was finished, they heard it. The distant roar. Two Bears looked up and shouted, "He is coming again!" He didn't run away this time, but he was excited, and he was still frightened. They all looked up at the moon. Some of them gasped as they saw it. The moving star, the son of the Night Wanderer was showing himself.

They all gathered around the fire, some of them danced, and chanted. They watched as it began moving in a circle again. Two Bears noticed that it was moving directly above them, not away from the village as it had before. It moved in its circular pattern with the village as its focal point, but it didn't descend. After circling four times, it moved back toward the moon again, and disappeared. They stared in wonder. "Ancient Warrior, what does it mean?"

"It is a messenger."

"But...what is its message?"

Ancient Warrior kept staring at the moon. Then he sat down by the fire. Most of them sat with him, waiting for him to speak. "A long time ago, our brothers to the south, far away to the south, they came to us. My father's father was just a boy, and he remembered the story _his_ elders told."

They all listened in rapt silence. "They had run away. They ran to the north, running for their lives." Ancient Warrior stared into the fire and spoke, as if in a trance. "Men had come to them from the Great Water...Strange men who wore metal on their heads and chests. They claimed to be gods, and our brothers believed them. But they were not gods. They were killers, plunderers. They carried magic sticks that roared and made men bleed."

"Killers?" Swan's eyes were wide.

"Yes...our brothers to the east have seen such men."

"They are here?" The people around the fire were alarmed.

"No...not yet. These are not the same men, and yet they are...strange, with white, pale skin and hair...I had a dream...the Everywhere Spirit told me they will come one day."

"Ancient Warrior, are we in danger?"

"No...these strangers, they are not all killers...but some of them are. The Everywhere Spirit is in them too, for they are human beings. I believe the son of the Night Wanderer is a message from the Everywhere Spirit...that they will surely come." They all sat by the fire in amazement and wonder, not just from Ancient Warrior's prediction, but from what they had seen in the sky.

A month later it was nearing a full moon again, and everyone was nervous and apprehensive. They prepared for their dance, but this time it was not only for the moon, the Goddess of the Hunt, the Night Wanderer, but also for her Son. And sure enough, he came.

They danced a new dance, in a pattern of concentric circles...they circled and circled...and the Son circled above them as before, but never descending. It circled three times in the sky and then retreated to his mother the moon, and disappeared. Their dancing had stopped as they watched. It was late fall, nearing winter, and the moon moved behind clouds.

A month later, they prepared again, and they danced under the full moon...and the Son appeared again. He circled twice overhead and disappeared. Again they watched in silence. Two Bears approached Ancient Warrior. "He only circled twice this time, and before he circled three times, and before that, four times."

"Yes, so I have seen...and the next time he will circle only once. Then after that, maybe he will speak to us."

A small advance party of four men had hiked all day, searching for access to the upper reaches of the Missouri River. They were also searching for horses, a friendly tribe of Sioux or Nez Perce with whom they could trade, they had had their fill dealing with the Crow tribes. The men were exhausted and hungry, as they only had a few rations among them. But they were determined, they knew their mission was important, if not profound. They had made camp for the night, under a full moon.

They laid under the stars. "Hey...hey Patrick! Do ya see that? Lookie up there!"

"Huh?" The men looked up at a star that seemed to be moving slowly in a circular pattern, miles away in the distance. One of the men shrugged, "just a shooting star..."

"Shooting stars don't move like that. Look at it! It's moving in a circle!" The men were too tired to pay that much attention. "Well, mark it down in the journal, we'll report it to Captain Clark when we get back."

"...if we get back..."

"That's enough outta you Ned! Now get some rest, all of ya!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Gass."

Patrick Gass wondered if Ned was right. Winter was coming and they needed food, horses, warmer clothes, and they had none. But he believed in divine providence.


	3. Chapter 3

One month later it was stormy and it rained hard. It was almost time for the moon, the Night Wanderer, to show her full face again. Two Bears and his people wondered what they should do. The hunting time was over, and they were well provisioned for the winter, the Night Wanderer had been kind indeed that year. But what about her son? Would he appear again? Two nights later they would know.

The night was partially clear, and cold, and clouds filled the sky, but they could see her. They built a great fire and waited. And then he came. The people stood and watched. The Son of the Night Wanderer flew from the direction of his mother, and went into his usual circular pattern. "He will circle only once." Two Bears whispered. And the Son did circle, just once.

But this time he didn't fly away...he started _descending!_ The people became frightened. The Son circled closer and closer to the ground, as he did five years before. His constant roar thundered through their ears and in their chests, louder and louder as he descended. Some of them scattered in fear, running to their tents, some running far into the distance. But a core of the people remained by the fire and watched. "Look! Look at it!" someone shouted. They could see its eyes, white and blinking, it also had red eyes. Ancient Warrior, in all his years, was truly alarmed, "This may me an evil thing!" Two Bears was transfixed, it was indeed a monster, a giant insect...how hideous it was!

It stopped descending only a hundred feet above them, circling and circling. And then a bright light blinded Two Bears. He shielded his eyes with his hands, as he tried to peer through the bright light. The monster continued to circle above them, but kept its bright light on Two Bears. His father shouted above the roar, "What does it want!"

Then the beast moved directly above Two Bears, hovering, with the light still on him. The light stopped, and the beast hovered for a moment, then moved away. They all watched as it moved to a clearing two hundred yards away from the village, and it remained about a hundred feet in the sky, hovering. Then its light appeared again, pointing straight down to the ground. It remained there hovering, as if it was waiting.

Two Bears knew, "He wants me to come." He started walking toward the beast. "Two Bears! No! He'll devour you!" Swan shouted.

"No...no he won't." He walked on, and the rest of them followed.

Captain Clark had listened to the men's report. "Shooting stars, huh?" He chuffed a laugh. "Well, maybe if you wished upon that star, we'd have us some horses."

"What do we have left?" Lewis asked.

"Not much. If we get past this next ridge without freezin' to death, we may just make it to the Nez Perce. That is, if we don't starve."

"Very well."

**Under the Nevada Desert, ca. 1971**

"I think they're ready now, General."

"Good...good. Alright...this is it everyone!...This is First Contact in a real cultural sense... We've done all we can. This is the reason the Time Tunnel was built, gentlemen. Ever since those hieroglyphics were discovered in 1954, THIS is the reason the damn thing was built. Tony and Doug did a hell of a job. Now that we know this works, let's do it..."

Frank stared at General Kirk. "Do you think we really handled it right? I mean, when Tony and Doug were out there, there was no control...but now, we are _in_ control. Of everything...of history!"

"Yes...indeed we are," the General said. "you saw those photos, Frank. Native American markings on a rock wall, what looked like alien spacemen, and a vehicle that looked like a crude chopper...hell, it must have been a giant grasshopper to them...or a some sort of angry god."

A crew was moving the Bell 85E Ranger helicopter into the tunnel. "I think we handled it right. We only sent them out during a full moon. We approached them gradually, gently...that first kid was almost dead when we found him. When we gave him a vitamin infusion and put a small homing device behind his ear, that's how we'd find him, month after month...but now, it's time we gave him the package."

Frank looked skeptical. "Couldn't we have just given the package to Lewis and Clark?"

"No! Of course not! They would have written in their journals, 'today, a flying machine from the future arrived and gave us provisions'...ha! No I don't think so, people would have thought they were nuts, insane...We learned in 1954 that they wouldn't have made it through the mountains without help from this particular group. And they only paint obscure pictures...on rocks. Therefore, there will be no irrefutable trace that we were ever there."

"Does this crew know the language?"

"They should know enough of the dialect anyway."

The Tunnel began to hum. "They're ready sir!"

"Good!" Doug Phillips had joined them. They walked to the tunnel entrance and watched as the helicopter started its rotor, and then vanished.

Two Bears slowly walked toward the monster, still hovering above. He walked into its light underneath and looked up. Then the light stopped, and he looked up into a giant dragonfly, its strong wind blowing down on top of him, as it lowered itself.

He scrambled out of the way as the others, about a hundred yards away looked on. A giant dragonfly!...yes...that's what it was!...it settled on to the soft ground. It continued to beat its wings as it seemed to shut each eye, red, white, yellow...and then...he saw men inside of it!

Had it swallowed them earlier?

Then the guts of the dragonfly opened and a man climbed out...a human being, it seemed. The man was all white, with a big round head. He was holding a basket. Two Bears was still laying on the ground, terrified really, remembering his first encounter. But this was different. The human being set the basket on the ground as the giant grasshoppers' wings beat slower...

The human being gestured to him, 'come here'...he pointed to the basket. Two Bears slowly got up, and walked toward him. The strange human reached up and removed his big round head, to reveal a normal man's head.

"This...for you and your people" The man pointed at the basket.

Two Bears glanced at it, he could barely understand his dialect. He stared at the man. The strange man gave him a drawing of two white men dressed in buckskins.

"These men are coming, you must help them...give them horses."

"Horses?"

"Give them horses. Help them." the man gestured toward the basket. "This is yours now. Go." The man turned and climbed into the giant insect. It beat its wings faster and lifted off, and flew away, back toward the moon.

Two Bears looked into the basket and smiled. He knew then, that the Everywhere Spirit was in all things.

_A gentle people in a land that belonged to them as early as time. Now they knew they weren't alone. They knew because of a visit by strange emissaries, from the Twilight Zone._


End file.
